The Bill Of Rights – 1st Amendment To The US Constitution

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This is the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution, most noted for guaranteeing us the right of free expression and freedom of religion (separation of church and state). It also gives you the right to petition the government with any grievances you might have.

police pepper spraying students

An example of law enforcement respecting your right to peaceful assembly according to the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution. The name of the cocksucker with the spray can is John Pike. Picture credit: Public domain, bitch!

You can do this in person (actually travel physically to Washington D.C. and knock on your congressman’s door), via snail mail, or, these days, most commonly electronically via email or the representative’s/senator’s website. The most effective way to catch the president’s attention is by starting a petition on whitehouse.gov.

Rest assured that your message will never reach the president’s desk and no matter how many co-signers you can gather it will never change policy. It’s all pretend! Your petition, in a best case scenario, will be filed away on a server and maybe in a distant future studied by presidential historians. Your email address will be saved for future spam campaigns begging for money. Worst case scenario, men in black with dark shades and bulges under their coats driving black SUVs with tinted glass will show up at your house wanting to “ask a few questions”. Be polite.

There is one exception to this rule: if your petition is accompanied by a huge wad of cash you might get through. But it has to be a lot of money. More than you have or will ever earn in your lifetime. It needs to be big corporation-sized contributions (aka “bribes”). Because after SCOTUS’ ruling that corporations are people and money is speech the playing field has been knocked even more out of kilter than it used to be. Mr Smith no longer goes to Washington. Just doesn’t happen. The only time high ranking elected representatives, including the president, are interested in you and your opinion, is in the lead-up to an election when they will lie through their teeth, contradict themselves in the same sentence, and make any kind of bogus promise to court you and your vote in order to keep their jobs. It’s never too late to make statements that are not meant to be taken factually (meaning it’s OK to lie if the intent is to get your support on election day).

corruption

A business man petitioning his elected representative (or former US Senator from Idaho Larry Craig seconds before he got busted in the men’s rest room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, I forget which). Picture credit: Really?

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, and that I’ve said this many times before, but it bears repeating: the United States is a two-party dictatorship where we elect (not by the “one-man-one-vote” model as you are lead to believe) a mostly reasonably benevolent, but crooked to the bone, pseudo-dictator and congressional lieutenants (that’s mobster hierarchy terminology), with term limits.

And the only way to win is with money. Lots of it. Billions of dollars per election cycle. You, and I mean this quite seriously, don’t play any significant part in this process. Half of eligible voters are so disillusioned with the process that they don’t even bother to vote. If more of us did, we might be able to change shit. American exceptionalism.

I’ve quoted this a few times before, and I will keep on doing so until it’s fixed, or I die, the latter being the most likely scenario. I just hope it won’t be in prison.

“It must be fun to watch a president run, just ask the man who owns one.”
~ Steppenwolf, from the album/song Monster

john kay steppenwolf

Please note that the front man of Steppenwolf, John Kay, was born in, and fled East Germany with his mother as a child. Not saying it carries any significance that a man who escaped a truly, bonafide, brutal and deadly dictatorship later became a rock star who wrote the greatest protest song ever written against the corrupt regime in his new, adopted country. Just think about it, is all I’m asking.

God bless y’all and these United States of America!

Disclaimer: This posting is for entertainment purposes only and in no way should be taken as a a call to overthrow the legally elected government, for which I have only the deepest respect.

ACT TO SAVE THE M1 GARAND!

I don’t know why I’m bothering (it won’t make any difference anyway), but I found this in my in-box today and thought I’d share. The email originated from wideners.com, an online retailer of ammo, ammo components and guns, mostly military surplus and used police lots. Feel free to pass this message on to the next guy.

For those who don’t know, the M1 Garand was the standard issue rifle for the US military, in production between 1936 and 1957. It is a fairly large rifle that holds 8 rounds in an internal magazine, semi-automatic without the ability to shoot full auto. Gun dealers import/re-import these military surplus rifles today and offer them to collectors and gun enthusiasts as a piece of American military curio and history. People buy these rifles for the same reason a stamp collector buys a rare or unusual stamp, or a numismatist a particular coin. This is not the gun of choice for your average criminal (or any criminal; it’s big, heavy, difficult to conceal, holds only eight rounds and takes long to re-load). Yet, the president  feels the need to act, you know, because of the children.

m1 garand

The legendary M1 Garand. You can’t have one.

I find it ironic that I receive this email on the same day they report yet another mass-shooting (13 casualties the last time I checked) in Chicago, no less, the president’s adopted home town where he served as a community organizer (I’m still not sure what that is). I’m willing to bet my left nut that the gun used was not an antique M1 Garand.

Anyway, the email I received asks me to sign a petition asking Obama to retract his executive order to ban the re-importation of a number of these rifles. I can tell you right away that the petition will have absolutely no effect, but if you want your voice to be heard (or at least noted and filed away in a database), you should go ahead.

Word of warning. You must register with whitehouse.gov in order to sign the petition, and you will automatically be added to their mailing list begging for money and donations. I’ve put them on my spam list.


ACT TO SAVE THE M1 GARAND!

Last week, the Obama Administration stopped the importation of M1 Garands, M1 Carbines and other U.S. produced curio & relic firearms through a “policy decision.” There were 84,000 M1 Garands almost ready to come in from Korea and President Obama stopped them with this order. UNREAL. PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.

We are writing to you regarding the recent Executive Action by the Obama Administration, specifically the policy decision in which The White House stated:

“Today, the Administration is announcing a new policy of denying requests to bring military-grade firearms back into the United States to private entities with only a few exceptions such as for museums.  This new policy will help keep military-grade firearms off our streets.”

Based on this Executive Action the following petition should be signed:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/retract-executive-order-against-re-importation-us-military-firearms/Gw1Pc64d

American gun owners, collectors, dealers, distributors and retailers should sign the above online petition to The White House seeking reversal of President Barak Obama’s Executive Action against the importation into the United States of the WWII era U.S. M1 Garand rifles. The President’s recent decision will not allow the M1 Garand rifle to be imported into the United States. These firearms are highly sought after collectible guns and valued by U.S. veterans, sport and target shooters, and members of reenactment clubs devoted to bringing the History of World War II to life with public displays. These rifles are also used for participation in parades and  variety of other community activities. These are not modern military weapons such as machine guns, and present no public safety issue in America. Please sign the petition now and get your customers to do the same.

We thank you in advance for your support.